Grid

For the past four days, as far as my social network, email and IM contacts were concerned, I disappeared completely. No, I didn’t unplug all my devices or sit in the dark with my power cut off, or even have to exert any willpower. I simply took a trip, up beyond the range of my cell phone carrier’s data network, to northern Ontario’s cottage country. The cottage my family visits there is not only beyond cell phone range, it also has no cable, no satellite and no local dial-up service available. What better setting for getting some web work done than at a remote location surrounded by nature and devoid of any Internet access?

Current state Renewable Portfolio Standards require nearly 40 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, but in order to deliver that power to customers the total cost of building the necessary transmission and distribution networks could reach $2 trillion, according to an industry report released today.